Foot-related medical stuff

[cjsmith]

Feet:

Called the NY doctor to plan trip.
He said he wanted me there for two weeks.
I said AAAAACK!
He said oh okaaaayy, get these three tests done locally, and then we'll make plan B.

So I have an appointment with my GP on Monday, and I have a prescription mailed from New York for these tests. I am scared to think what they will all cost.

Other, also mostly feet:

I switched gynecologists because mine closed his practice.
My new doc wanted a glucose tolerance test, with several other tests thrown in.

She also wants me tested for Lyme Disease, which I will go do as soon as either of my arms heals up. Lyme can attack joints and show nothing on an MRI. Lyme is also one of those lifelong diseases: once you've got it, you're forever waiting for the next flareup. Lyme is best treated immediately. Me, if I do have it I've had it for seventeen years. Not much hope there. I'm torn between hoping I don't have it, because goodness knows I don't need another lifelong health problem, and hoping I do, because if my foot problems are Lyme then what I have is something doctors have heard of. That alone would have immense value.

She also gave me injectable B-vitamin supplements. I am getting better about needles, really I am. I didn't get woozy at all during the glucose tolerance test. I even know how to do subcutaneous injections. I've done them for years on my cat. I know how to prepare the syringe. I have alcohol swabs. So I sat there looking at the needle in one hand and the fold of my own skin in the other... and stayed that way for about twenty minutes before I gave up. It's just not going to happen. I think I will ask a diabetic coworker and see if she's willing to be on the other end of the syringe for my first one. :-( [edit: She was. It went fine. I am so grateful!]

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, B12. It's a totally long shot thing for my feet, to see if I have nerve pathology due to vitamin deficiency. I almost wound up with sublingual, but my doc said some people don't absorb it well that way, so we figured we'd eliminate one potential variable and go straight for the injections.

45 minutes, eh? Wow, you're braver -- or more determined -- than I am. I got a coworker to stick me. :-)

[composerjk.livejournal.com]

Well, if you need to keep doing the injections, B-12 sublingual tablets are a good way to go, in my opinion. :) I assume your doc also did blood work to check B-12 levels.

Not necessarily more brave. Just that I had to learn to do it. I've been giving myself injections for over three years now on a mostly weekly basis, though the latest drug is every other week.

Good luck figuring things out!